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By Sena Balbach Many people in today’s society wear clothing and accessories made from fake fur instead of real fur. Is this simply because faux fur is more accessible in mainstream clothing stores? Or are people aware of the cruelty in the fur industry and consciously avoid clothing made from real fur from other animals? If you fall into the second category there is still a chance that your faux fur items contain fur from a non-human animal and have been mislabeled. It is estimated that humans have been wearing the furs of other animals for up to 170,000 years for clothing and protection from the elements, but as modern technology and textiles developed the demand for the pelts of other animals should have decreased, right? Sadly that is not the case. Fur became a fashion statement and a sign of wealth. The trend took off in the mid-20th century and is still apparent today, as can be seen in statistics of how many individuals are killed for their fur each year. One of the animals most likely to be misrepresented as faux fur is the Raccoon Dog or Asiatic raccoon, an animal most people have never heard of or know very little about. Native to eastern Asia and spread across Russia and northern Europe, the Raccoon Dog is a member of the Canidae family, as is the fox, wolf, and domestic dog. The Raccoon Dog has no relation to the North American Raccoon, despite their similar appearance. Raccoon Dogs are considered pests by many humans and have beautiful, full, bushy coats, both reasons that make them the unfortunately easy targets for humans to use in mass fur production. What started out as catching wild Raccoon Dogs for their pelts has now become humans keeping large numbers of individuals in mass “fur farms”. A fur farm is an operation that raises and breeds animals specifically for their fur, and is where about 85% of the world’s fur comes from. In these fur farms Raccoon Dogs are bred and housed in wire cages that are barely bigger than their bodies, and often more than one are squeezed into a cage. In the “European Convention for the Protection of Animals Kept for Farming Purposes” a minimum cage size of 0.8 square meters was set, but the extent to which fur farms are regulated varies so in some farms some the largest cages used to keep the raccoon dogs in measured under the minimum size at only about 0.63 square meters. These cages often do not contain any shelter or nesting box they can retreat to, to avoid stressors such as their own waste, humans, or weather; because fur farms are oftentimes outdoor operations, so the Raccoon Dogs are in constant exposure to the elements. They are in such extreme and constant distress while in these cages that abnormal behaviors are commonly observed. These behaviors range from pacing and head bobbing to self-mutilation and infanticide which is when mothers will kill their offspring due to high stress. They are kept this way from birth until after their first molt, when they are skinned. In places where there are no laws in place for animal welfare on fur farms the humans are free to abuse and neglect the raccoon dogs without fear of any repercussions. In China the Raccoon Dogs are often clubbed in the head, or have their heads bashed against the ground before being skinned. This doesn’t always result in immediate death, so they regain consciousness sometime before, during, or after being skinned. There are videos taken at fur farms that show the bodies of raccoon dogs blinking, breathing, or even writhing about for up to 5-10 minutes after their skin has been removed. In Finland, one of the few European countries that still has raccoon dog fur farms, individuals are killed by anal electrocution before being skinned. Another shocking practice observed by Animal Equality activists in Chinese fur farms was the feeding of corpses of skinned raccoon dogs to the others still in cages. Raccoon dogs are omnivores, meaning they naturally eat plants as well as meat, so this practice is an easy way for the fur farmers to keep production costs low because they don’t have to buy food for them. The leading producer of raccoon dog fur in Europe is Finland where approximately 160,000 raccoon dog furs are produced every year, but according to a 2010 report from the United States Department of Food and Agriculture China is the world’s leading producer of raccoon dog pelts. Though, because the majority of the fur farms there are smaller operations and aren’t regulated well, records aren’t kept that would show how many raccoon dogs are processed annually. The number could be as high as 1.5 million raccoon dogs raised for fur in China. The fight to end the production and processing of fur is ongoing, but progress is being made. European countries such as the United Kingdom, Austria, and the Netherlands have already banned fur farming. The Netherlands was Europe’s second largest producer of mink. More and more countries are taking steps to phase out fur farms, some have banned the farming of some species but not others, and other countries such as India have a fur trade ban. In the United States some states prohibit keeping fox in captivity, New York passed a law against the electrocution of animals, and in West Hollywood there is a ban on the sale of fur. There are things we can all do on a daily basis to support the campaign against fur and fur farms. Checking labels on products and not buying anything that includes fur as well as bringing it to the attention of a retailer if you believe an item is mislabeling a fur containing product, boycotting companies that still use fur in any of their products (Many companies have already pledged to go fur free, the Humane Society of the United States has a full updated list here), contacting companies and government to voice your concerns about the fur industry, and last but not least sharing your knowledge. The more people that become aware of the cruelty and suffering in the fur industry, the faster we can save millions of lives from suffering worldwide. REFERENCES Byrne, R. (2008, May). Asiatic Raccoon Fact Sheet. Retrieved February 20, 2018, from link Petry, M., & Liting, B. (2010, May 25). Fur Animals and Products. Retrieved February 25, 2018, from link Hsieh-Yi, Yi-Chiao, Rissi, M., & Maas, B. (n.d.). Fun-fur-A-report-on-the-Chinese-fur-industry. Retrieved February 25, 2018, from link Lange, K. E. (2015, Sept. & oct.). The Grisly Truth. Retrieved February 20, 2018, from link New Investigation Inside Chinese Fur Farms Which Breed 'raccoon dogs'. (2015, March 11). Retrieved February 25, 2018, from link The Humane Society of the United States. (n.d.). Fur-Free Retailers, Designers and Brands. Retrieved February 26, 2018, from link Toups, M. A., Kitchen, A., Light, J. E., & Reed, D. L. (2010, September 07). Origin of Clothing Lice Indicates Early Clothing Use by Anatomically Modern Humans in Africa. Molecular Biology and Evolution. Oxford Academic. Retrieved February 25, 2018, from link Fur bans. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2018, from link Author BioSena Balbach is a junior at Minnesota State University, Mankato majoring in Pre-Veterinary Medicine. Animals have always been her passion and she has always surrounded herself with animals and nature. An avid camper, Sena spends her summers in the north woods of Minnesota and in the BWCAW with her best friend Milo; a seven year old yellow lab.
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This is a website about nonhuman animals, written by human animals taking a Society and Animals class at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Archives
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